Elf's Adventures: The joys of sailing the open waters

The joys of sailing, just the word has your mind dreamily drifting off as you envisage glistening sunsets and inviting cocktails being sipped on luxury crafts while anchored in exotic destinations.

If you are lucky enough to do ocean crossings you are constantly in awe by the simplicity of nature. My adventure vessel that I was lucky enough to be allowed on was an enchanting Adams 55ft monohaul yacht aptly named Topaz on which I have done several epic trips.

But not all sailing is plain, far from it! Sailing long distances is demanding work, both mentally and physically. Careful planning of when to sail, the winds, routes, stopovers and supplies need to be decided before merrily setting off as there is no convenience store or Ultra City mid ocean where you can quickly refuel.

Ocean crossings can be gruelling; working 3 hour shifts wears you down as you are on duty in total for 12hours per day. The boat doesn’t drop its anchor for you to get a good night’s sleep, it continues sailing nonstop, sometimes longer than 30 days all depending on your route, purpose of travel and stopovers. Our longest time at sea was 16 days from Sulawesi, Indonesia to Thursday Island the northern most point of Australia.

Our stopovers and destinations included Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and most of the Queensland and Northern Territory coast lines. Our crew were mostly British and we had a maximum of four people on the boat at any one time. On board was a motley crew, a lifesaver from Newcastle Dave, who was a keen surfer. Kitty his partner worked for the British Government doing IT work and Jon, also from Newcastle, owned his own yacht so was well versed in the winds and ropes. My skipper was a global adventurer who grew up in Australia, Rob Ferenczi and spent the last twenty years sailing around the Indian and Pacific Oceans. He was the proud owner of Topaz.

Sailing through the Indian Ocean, team Topaz passed through what we had nicknamed UFO’s, unidentified floating objects. And there was a lot of that, frighteningly so! Two days south of India and Sri Lanka was most probably the worst. Topaz sailed through areas strewn with litter as far as the eye could see, hours were spent identifying some of the rubbish, items from plastic tennis rackets, slops and sandals, to even a florescent tube that was still intact floated past us.

At night we would rely on radar to alert us to other vessels or land in our near vicinity. Nights were always challenging with the notorious local fishing crafts that bobbed close by with their nets cast out, the difficulty was in spotting them as the radar picked them up but they had no lights on so it was impossible to physically see them. Added to that the tropical squalls that would pass through, putting a damper on our adventure. But that was short lived; nights were glorious, gazing up while lying on the deck you were surrounded by a carpet of unimaginable stars glittering overhead. Each night we were treated to a show of shooting stars and meteors falling. Learning the various constellations and spotting them at different stages of the night cycle was our nightly trial.

Out on the open waters you cannot believe the serenity, each morning I had breakfast on the bow as I watched dolphins playfully surf in our bow wave, leaping into the air in such delight. During the day I would sit on deck, surrounded by 360 degree horizons of sparkling blue or green oceans, reading novels and checking our progress. The word blissful is the only way to describe this peace.

And at the end of each scorching tropical day, nature presented us with another amazing palate of colours as the sun dipped behind the horizon. Comparing sunset to sunset, I would have to say that I was treated to four months of the most inspiring beauty I could ever have dreamed of. All this while travelling in most possibly the greenest form of travel, sailing.